Town Square

Survey seeks public opinion on new affordable housing tax

Original post made
on Dec 15, 2011

Police officers might be getting sick from the mold in the police station, and the city's 1960s community center may be falling apart, but council members said Tuesday that November 2012 is the wrong election to ask voters for a tax measure to fund the rebuilding of those facilities.

WHAT ?? A new Police Building ?? For (*()*Y sake, our present one is not that old...It should last for another 50 yrs... Mold ? Cheaper to fix it than build a new one. Jeeze, can't our council stop looking for ways to spend ? AND... a suggestion that we tax EVERY home in town $5.00 so we can build housing for the "Poor" ???

STOP THE INSANITY. Elect a council that cares about the town, not about re-election goodines.

Posted by Dominick
a resident of Waverly Park
on Dec 15, 2011 at 11:12 pm

Here we go again. There is no such thing as affordable housing. The materials cost the same as market priced housing, same for labor and land . The proper name for such housing is publicly financed and supported housing. Why is the council in the housing business anyway? The other times mountain view built housing for the poor they were filled with non-mountain view residents mostly Russian immagrants. You put out corn you get pigeons. I bet none of the city council wants such housing in thier neigborhood

Posted by Downtown Neighbor
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Dec 16, 2011 at 7:05 pm

Ha, looks like we're seeing some survey results here for free.

Our government is not just giving today's tax collections and public-owned property to developers for these projects - they are committing our children into subsidizing them for tens of years to come. Guaranteed taxpayer dollars is attractive to big business, and even Google is getting in on it as an investor in the Franklin Street project.

Posted by Political Insider
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Dec 18, 2011 at 5:18 pm

The proposed survey is to study a parcel tax which would be imposed on all property owners. Renters and developers are not exempted. The survey will determine if all of the residents of Mtn View want to pay a small tax to subsidize those who supposedly cannot afford to live here.

Some staff and council members are against this. They want to stick it to landowners that delayed developing their property and restrict housing to increase home prices and make it less affordable for new residents.

I applaud the council members for their principled stance on this issue. If subsidized housing is a community benefit, then all residents should help pay for it.

Having just reviewed these comments, it would be another insane expenditure of City Funds to pay for any further "research" to "test" community support for another tax to fund "low cost" (no such thing) housing.
Come on council... wake the heck up. Look for ways to CUT spending, not for ways to increase expenses and taxes.
The election is coming. Except for Councilman Means, toss them all out.

Posted by Garrett
a resident of another community
on Dec 20, 2011 at 3:12 pm

Police and Fire building was built in or around 1980, had some problems and was damaged in the 89 earthquake.

On the tax study for housing, dumb idea really dumb.

I don't know much about the running of city, nor do i would expect everyone to do, but how much should we pay someone to keep are really good well managed city. What about have a Police and Fire Dept that are well run and maintained.

Tax groups that want to see less and less taxes and more cut and cuts, how do we expect to maintain the places where we work and live. I don't see the private sectore jumping to take over planning, water management, trash, law and order or any public function without the question of how much can i get out of it.

Poor People are we talking about homeless or the working poor, someone by chance who has to work at McDonalds or fixes cars for a living.

Posted by Steven Nelson
a resident of Cuesta Park
on Dec 20, 2011 at 3:21 pm

Good school teachers. I know of several of our best at Bubb and surrounding city schools that only live here (i.e. don't move to Stocton etc when they get families) because they were able to buy a small family condo with BMR financing. I think Mr. Frankin is cool - I want him and other public school teachers like him to stay!
BMR programs do not help fire & police dept. employees - because most make too much to qualify! New developments like the Miramonte townhomes do make more demands on parks, SCHOOLS, and transportation. I'm all for a small developers fee (one time) and a small property tax (continued funding). See the science researcher's comments on why life in Mt. View is appealing (though less so when I read many of these comments).

Posted by Olivia
a resident of Blossom Valley
on Dec 22, 2011 at 8:27 am

I certainly don't want to pay anymore taxes-does anyone? But what is really the big picture here? If the city has buildings that are causing employees to get sick and they dont fix the issue or even cover up the issue, I would think the liability for the city would be huge. Inevitably, the city will end up paying for all of the employees who end up sick and God forbid it be something catastrophic and the city gets sued for something they knew about.

I agree more money needs to be invested in schools and especially in the teachers who teach.

As for the low income housing- I am just not sure who this is helping? Is it bringing in people from outside the City of Mountain View or is it helping the "working poor" (as another reader called it) and allowing them to stay in the city to work.

We all wish we made more money and make snide comments about those who make more for reasons we see as ridiculous. BUT when it comes to law enforcement and fire fighters and their salaries and pensions- they are doing a job that no one else really wants. Cops may have to face violent people who none of us want to be anywhere near. Fire fighters rush into burning buildings when most of us are running out and they contend with the sick and injured- a job which most people would cringe before they had to deal with it. Unfortunately some of those cops and fire fighters have made the ultimate sacrifice for doing their jobs... do you go to work each day with the unspoken truth that you may not return home to your family?

I just hope council and us residents at the time of elections make the right decisions to make this city a great place to live and work.

Posted by Larry Condit
a resident of Gemello
on Dec 23, 2011 at 12:18 am

Construction standards have changed, and our Community Center and Police/Fire HQ may well need to be replaced; the fact that our City Council has decided that next year is not the best time to place this issue before the electorate may be a wise decision judging from the responses I have read. This does not mean that the need to replace these facilities does not exist. As for BMR housing, or publicly supported housing units - do any of you eat in a local restaurant, or have your offices cleaned while you are at home enjoying life? Not only our teachers priced out of our community, but everyone is a service capacity needs to commute from the Central Valley or elsewhere, unless they purchased a home here a generation ago. Has our society - particularly our community here in Mountain View - no compassion?

Posted by Garrett
a resident of another community
on Dec 24, 2011 at 5:57 pm

Reform is needed, how much reform and what kind of reform should be presented. I have something here to point out, I read alot and hear alot of news, the pay, pension benefit question which is just not here, read the news from the north and south cities and you don't even have to go that far from Mtn View. As for private sector workers need I say more.